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English 2180: Female Futures

Finding SF in Library Catalogs & Discovery Systems

A library catalog is an inventory of what a specific library owns or "holds". Currently we don't have a separate catalog, but our books are listed in Discover@MU. Run a search and then use the filters in the left sidebar to limit to books and to MU locations. This system also lists books at the other UM campuses. Although we can't share e-books, you can request that physical books be sent here for you to use.

Expand your search beyond the University of Missouri through MOBIUS (Missouri academic libraries and some public libraries) and WorldCat.
You can find and request books through these systems and they'll be sent here free of charge.
You may also want to explore our local public library, which is not part of the MOBIUS system. (Get a public library card.)

Unlike public libraries, academic libraries usually don't separate fiction into a specific section. You'll need to use the catalog to find the call number and location of specific books to find them.

To find books by a specific author, do an AUTHOR search, surname first.
To find books that ARE science fiction, NOT books ABOUT science fiction, do a SUBJECT search. This will retrieve books about science fiction, but also books that are science fiction.
A TITLE search will find books by title, but to find short stories within books, you might need to do a KEYWORD search: put the title of the story in quotation marks and add the author's last name.

Finding SF Stories in Anthologies and Magazines

Databases and printed indexes list short stories published in magazines and anthologies. You can find many stories by known authors or by title using the Discover@MU search tool, but you'll probably want to supplement this by using the specialized indexes below.

Few academic libraries collect popular SF magazines, but we can get copies of specific stories for you through Interlibrary Loan. Once you've identified a story and where it was published, you can place a request and we'll find a library that can provide a pdf of the story. This usually takes a few days and is free of charge.

SciFi Magazines

A lot of science fiction has been published in magazines. The following books provide an overview of the magazines and their contents.
While most libraries will not lend magazines or journals, we can order copies of specific articles or of specific covers through Interlibrary Loan.
Materials published before 1927 are no longer covered by copyright and may be available online via Google, Hathi Trust, or the Internet Archive.

 

Internet Archive

The Internet Archive is a huge online archive of all sorts of media.
Here you can find

These links are to preset searches, but you can also search for your own topics, specific titles, etc. Have fun!

For materials still under copyright, register for a free account and login in the upper right corner to freely "borrow" materials. You won't be able to download them, but you can read them on screen and then "return" them so they become available for others.